Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Encyclopedia
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is a program that was initiated by the Vancouver Aquarium
by a small group of staff members and volunteers in 1994. These employees had heard about the International Coastal Cleanup and decided to participate in it by picking up garbage at a local beach and submitting the information. The Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup is an annual international initiative aimed to engage people to remove trash and debris from the world's beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris, and change the behaviors that cause marine debris in the first place.
Volunteers and sponsors collect and catalogue litter which is then collected for analysis on sources of garbage that enter the ocean. Since 2003, For example, in 2009, 1,568 shoreline cleanup sites with a collective length of 2457 km (1,526.7 mi) were cleaned, bringing in roughly 95 metric tonne
s of garbage.
decided to protect the shorelines of Vancouver by cleaning up the shore of a local beach. By 1997, the project became known as the Great BC Beach Cleanup and with 400 volunteers cleaning and collecting data from 20 sites across the Lower Mainland annually. As the program continue to expand, cleanup locations started to pop-up in the interior of BC highlight the connection between inland bodies of water, such as rivers and lakes, to the ocean. In 2001, the initiative expanded into Alberta and became known as the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. By 2003, cleanups were happening in every province and territory of Canada as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.
Every year, organizations in select cities host larger events where community members can drop in to clean a local shoreline, some of these cities include, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, and St. John's. Every participating cleanup submits information on what items are collected, how many items of each are collected and what animals or aquatic life is found affected by marine debris (i.e. entangled or dead). This data is first compiled and then sent to The Ocean Conservancy
. With this information, reports are produced examining the impacts of marine debris
on the environment; for example, Marine Debris: A Focus for Community Engagement, a report by Paul Topping presented at the Coastal Zone Canada Conference in 2000.
This initiative is part of The Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup, an international program encouraging community members to remove litter from their shorelines. "The event focuses on educating and empowering people to become a part of the marine debris solution.". Canada is one of at least 120 countries world wide participating in this program, others include: Australia, USA, Mexico, Singapore, Fiji, Kuwait, Peru, China, Jamaica, Barbados, France and the United Kingdom. Currently, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is one of the largest cleanup programs in the world.
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup submits a tally of the data collected from each individual site to the International Coastal Conservancy every year. To see a list of 2009 shoreline cleanup locations in Canada that submitted data, please take a look at the Ocean Conservancy's data overlay for Google Earth.
Some quick statistics on the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup for the last few years:
Year-round staff work out of the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park and a satellite office in Toronto, Ontario. Participants can choose from a past list of shoreline sites or they can add a new shoreline to the database. Eligible shorelines are areas where land meets water, which include but are not limited to oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, ponds and wetlands.
The program typically runs the third week every September; early registration is highly recommended as preferred shoreline sites are usually claimed by returning Site Coordinators early. Registration to be a Site Coordinator runs from Spring until September. Participants wanting to join a cleanup are welcome to register up until the day of the event.
With the support of Year of Science, the Vancouver Foundation and SAP Canada, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup will be piloting spring Cleanups in May 2011 only for schools in BC. These spring cleanups will provide educators the opportunity to facilitate cleanups to compliment new lesson plans developed by the Vancouver Aquarium. These lesson plans support the Prescribed Learning Outcomes of the BC Ministry of Education's Integrated Resource Packages (IRPs).
All across the country, Canadians have found some unusual items along their shorelines. Some of the more unusual items include a hair curler, Celine Dion CDs, a rickshaw, messages in bottles, a rice cooker, a love letter, a whoopee cushion, false teeth, a disco ball, wedding veils, a wedding gown, wedding invitations and a groom's jacket, barbecues, toilets, patio furniture, auto parts, an Elvis suit, a canoe made out of duct tape and a kitchen sink.
While it is fun and exciting to find a variety of strange items every year, the more common items collected from shorelines continue to be found in abundance annually. Every year, cigarette butts top the list of finds in Canada, and around the world. In 2009 alone, this conservation program removed 367,010 cigarette butts from shorelines across Canada – if a someone smoked a pack a day, it would take them over 50 years to smoke that many cigarettes. Lined up from tip to tip, it would also cover the length of over 150 hockey rinks. The majority of shoreline litter originates from two sources: shoreline and recreational activities and smoking-related activities.
The 2010 Dirty Dozen
Vancouver Aquarium
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre is a public aquarium located in Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In addition to being a major tourist attraction for Vancouver, the aquarium is a centre for marine research, conservation and marine animal rehabilitation.The Vancouver...
by a small group of staff members and volunteers in 1994. These employees had heard about the International Coastal Cleanup and decided to participate in it by picking up garbage at a local beach and submitting the information. The Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup is an annual international initiative aimed to engage people to remove trash and debris from the world's beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris, and change the behaviors that cause marine debris in the first place.
Volunteers and sponsors collect and catalogue litter which is then collected for analysis on sources of garbage that enter the ocean. Since 2003, For example, in 2009, 1,568 shoreline cleanup sites with a collective length of 2457 km (1,526.7 mi) were cleaned, bringing in roughly 95 metric tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s of garbage.
History
In 1994, a small group of employees at the Vancouver AquariumVancouver Aquarium
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre is a public aquarium located in Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In addition to being a major tourist attraction for Vancouver, the aquarium is a centre for marine research, conservation and marine animal rehabilitation.The Vancouver...
decided to protect the shorelines of Vancouver by cleaning up the shore of a local beach. By 1997, the project became known as the Great BC Beach Cleanup and with 400 volunteers cleaning and collecting data from 20 sites across the Lower Mainland annually. As the program continue to expand, cleanup locations started to pop-up in the interior of BC highlight the connection between inland bodies of water, such as rivers and lakes, to the ocean. In 2001, the initiative expanded into Alberta and became known as the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. By 2003, cleanups were happening in every province and territory of Canada as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.
Every year, organizations in select cities host larger events where community members can drop in to clean a local shoreline, some of these cities include, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, and St. John's. Every participating cleanup submits information on what items are collected, how many items of each are collected and what animals or aquatic life is found affected by marine debris (i.e. entangled or dead). This data is first compiled and then sent to The Ocean Conservancy
The Ocean Conservancy
The Ocean Conservancy is a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States.-History:...
. With this information, reports are produced examining the impacts of marine debris
Marine debris
Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human created waste that has deliberately or accidentally become afloat in a lake, sea, ocean or waterway. Oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the centre of gyres and on coastlines, frequently washing aground, when it is known as beach litter or...
on the environment; for example, Marine Debris: A Focus for Community Engagement, a report by Paul Topping presented at the Coastal Zone Canada Conference in 2000.
Overview
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is one of the largest conservation initiatives of the Vancouver Aquarium. While coordinated out of Vancouver, BC and Toronto, Ontario, the program reaches into every province and territory of Canada. In 2008, over 63,000 registrants signed up to clean 1,531 sites along the shores of Canada.This initiative is part of The Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup, an international program encouraging community members to remove litter from their shorelines. "The event focuses on educating and empowering people to become a part of the marine debris solution.". Canada is one of at least 120 countries world wide participating in this program, others include: Australia, USA, Mexico, Singapore, Fiji, Kuwait, Peru, China, Jamaica, Barbados, France and the United Kingdom. Currently, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is one of the largest cleanup programs in the world.
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup submits a tally of the data collected from each individual site to the International Coastal Conservancy every year. To see a list of 2009 shoreline cleanup locations in Canada that submitted data, please take a look at the Ocean Conservancy's data overlay for Google Earth.
Some quick statistics on the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup for the last few years:
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registrants | 20,015 | 30,140 | 36,798 | 40,781 | 52,263 | 63,491 | 56,916 | 47,027 |
| Number of sites | 477 | 634 | 813 | 966 | 1240 | 1,531 | 1,568 | 1,219 |
| Distance (km) | 969 | 1,146 | 1,477 | 2,080 | 1,772 | 2,152 | 2,457 | TBC |
| Weight (kg) | 49,859 | 67,988 | 86,201 | 84,708 | 87,489 | 135,467 | 160,914 | TBC |
How it works
Powered by Canadians, this program allows people from all regions and all walks of life to make a positive difference to their environment. Since 2003, more than 180,000 Canadians registered to clean up just 6,807 km of shorelines. Together, they have removed 365,427 kg of litter from Canada's shorelines. Participants are encouraged to register to clean up a specific site in advance, but some Site Coordinators have left their events open to people wanting to drop in to participate.Year-round staff work out of the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park and a satellite office in Toronto, Ontario. Participants can choose from a past list of shoreline sites or they can add a new shoreline to the database. Eligible shorelines are areas where land meets water, which include but are not limited to oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, ponds and wetlands.
The program typically runs the third week every September; early registration is highly recommended as preferred shoreline sites are usually claimed by returning Site Coordinators early. Registration to be a Site Coordinator runs from Spring until September. Participants wanting to join a cleanup are welcome to register up until the day of the event.
With the support of Year of Science, the Vancouver Foundation and SAP Canada, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup will be piloting spring Cleanups in May 2011 only for schools in BC. These spring cleanups will provide educators the opportunity to facilitate cleanups to compliment new lesson plans developed by the Vancouver Aquarium. These lesson plans support the Prescribed Learning Outcomes of the BC Ministry of Education's Integrated Resource Packages (IRPs).
Origins of shoreline litter
Data results over the years have indicated that the majority of litter removed from shorelines in Canada originates from land and land-based activities. In 2010, of the nearly 681,000 items removed from shorelines, approximately 54.6% were identified as originating from shoreline and recreational activities, while another 37.8% originated from smoking-related activities.Items found along the shoreline
A cleanup of any shoreline will reveal some unexpected discoveries. Over the years, participants have hauled out stolen cars, motorcycles, and hotel safes, as well as innumerable bikes, mattresses, couches and computer equipment. Some items suggest people have a romantic affiliation with the shoreline, and some items suggest that the romance is over (burned engagement ring boxes, engagement rings, torn-up letters, etc.).All across the country, Canadians have found some unusual items along their shorelines. Some of the more unusual items include a hair curler, Celine Dion CDs, a rickshaw, messages in bottles, a rice cooker, a love letter, a whoopee cushion, false teeth, a disco ball, wedding veils, a wedding gown, wedding invitations and a groom's jacket, barbecues, toilets, patio furniture, auto parts, an Elvis suit, a canoe made out of duct tape and a kitchen sink.
While it is fun and exciting to find a variety of strange items every year, the more common items collected from shorelines continue to be found in abundance annually. Every year, cigarette butts top the list of finds in Canada, and around the world. In 2009 alone, this conservation program removed 367,010 cigarette butts from shorelines across Canada – if a someone smoked a pack a day, it would take them over 50 years to smoke that many cigarettes. Lined up from tip to tip, it would also cover the length of over 150 hockey rinks. The majority of shoreline litter originates from two sources: shoreline and recreational activities and smoking-related activities.
The 2010 Dirty Dozen
| Rank | Item | Number of items collected |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cigarette Cigarette A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well... /Cigarette filter Cigarette filter A cigarette filter has the purpose of reducing the amount of smoke, tar, and fine particles inhaled during the combustion of a cigarette. Filters also reduce the harshness of the smoke and keep tobacco flakes out of the smoker's mouth.-History:... |
TBC |
| 2 | Food Wrappers & Containers Food packaging Food packaging is packaging for food. It requires protection, tampering resistance, and special physical, chemical, or biological needs. It also shows the product that is labeled to show any nutrition information on the food being consumed.... |
TBC |
| 3 | Bags (plastic) Plastic bag A plastic bag, polybag, or pouch is a type of packaging made of thin, flexible, plastic film, nonwoven fabric, or plastic textile. Plastic bags are used for containing and transporting goods such as foods, produce, powders, ice, magazines, comic books, chemicals and waste.Most plastic bags are... |
TBC |
| 4 | Caps/Lids | TBC |
| 5 | Cups, Plates, Forks, Knives, Spoons | TBC |
| 6 | Beverage bottles (plastic) 2 litres or less] | TBC |
| 7 | Beverage cans] | TBC |
| 8 | Straws], stirrers | TBC |
| 9 | Beverage bottles (glass) Glass bottle A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. Glass bottles can vary in size considerably, but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 10ml and 5 liters.... |
TBC |
| 10 | Bags (Paper) Paper bag A paper bag or paper sack is a preformed container made of paper, usually with an opening on one side. It can be one layer of paper or multiple layers of paper and other flexible materials. A bag is used for packaging and/or carrying items.... |
TBC |
| 11 | Cigar Tips | TBC |
| 12 | Tobacco Packaging/Wrappers | TBC |
Similar initiatives
Coastal and shoreline initiatives exist around in the world. Here is a list of other organizations and events similar to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.International
- Clean Up AustraliaClean Up AustraliaClean Up Australia is a not-for-profit Australian environmental conservation organisation founded by Australian Ian Kiernan, and co-founder Kim McKay, in 1989. It works to foster relationships between the community, business and government to address the environmental issues of waste, water and...
- International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
- Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong KongOcean Park Conservation Foundation Hong KongThe Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Hong Kong , often referred to by its initialism OPCFHK is the conglomerate of the former Ocean Park Conservation Foundation and The Hong Kong Society for Panda Conservation established under the Ocean Park Corporation, with effect from 1 July 2005...
- Ocean Coastal Cleanup
- UnderWater World GuamUnderwater world guamUnderWater World Guam is one of the longest tunnel-aquariums in the world and the only oceanarium in Guam.The aquarium opened in 1999 and has more than 2,000 animals representing more than 80 different species. Many of the animals included in the aquarium are native to Guam and the surrounding...
United States of America
- California Coastal Cleanup
- Heal the BayHeal the BayHeal the Bay is a U.S. environmental advocacy non-profit organization based in Santa Monica, California.Heal the Bay is dedicated to protecting California's Santa Monica Bay, a region of the Pacific coast encompassed by Malibu's Point Dume on the north and the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the south...
- Alabama Coastal Cleanup